Officials received £2,000 lessons in juggling and building a miniature railway

Labor has blasted the ‘waste’ of taxpayers’ money on a day off for Department for Transport staff

Officials received a £2,000 lesson in juggling and building a miniature railway on a taxpayer-funded away day.

Labor this evening branded the Department for Transport’s spending as a “waste” as rail fares soar.

Expenditure records show the department paid £2,074.28 to Zing Events as part of a 38-person ‘team away day’ – part of £18,000 spent on team building days last winter.

Rather than running away all day, the company ran 60-minute ice-breaking sessions to “energize” conferences and stop “death by PowerPoint.”

DfT staff spent 20 minutes doing group juggling where people learn “how as a team to pass the juggling ball to the next person while receiving a juggling ball from the other side”.

We spent another 20 minutes on the Mini Mexican Railway, where “couples have to build a contraption that can carry a ball from one end of the room to the other.”

Shadow Transport Minister Louise Haigh said: “While taxpayers are calculating the cost of 15 Tory tax hikes and passengers are facing brutal fare hikes, ministers have been spending public money on ridiculous activities.

“Rather than wasting taxpayers’ money on absurd days, the transport secretary could try to do his job and cope with the rising millions of dollars in travel costs.

“It’s always the public that foots the bill for Tory rubbish.”

Labor said spending first reported by i News, was part of a series of ‘days away’ last winter which cost more than £18,000.

Others included £2,700 to a company called Mind Gym which offers Psychology Based Organizational Transformation.

Government officials stressed that most employers across the country use third-party companies to break the ice and do team building.

The icebreakers were part of a broader professional development training day.

A DfT spokesman said: “We value our employees and recognize the importance training days can have in helping our employees develop new skills.

“We are constantly striving to reduce our administrative costs and venues are chosen with that in mind.”